Treasure Basket and Heuristic Play support personal, social and emotional development by providing the very youngest children with a play experience in which they can make choices and play autonomously, delighting in the exploration of very carefully chosen objects with all their senses and responding with excitement …

: involving or serving as an aid to learning, discovery, or problem-solving by experimental and especially trial-and-error methods heuristic techniques a heuristic assumption also : of or relating to exploratory problem-solving techniques that utilize self-educating techniques (such as the evaluation of feedback) to …

Heuristic play gives children the opportunity to experience an environment where they can develop different ways to be creative and expressive in their handling of a variety of objects. It is an effective way of encouraging children to explore artifacts from our culture and to develop their thinking further.

Heuristic play is a classic play activity as it supports many aspects of toddlers’ development. Principally it: encourages fine motor movements as children attempt to pick up and manipulate objects (physical development) supports children’s creativity as they explore what they can do with the items (creativity)

Heuristic method is a pure discovery method of learning science independent of teacher. In this the teacher set a problem for the students and then stands aside while discover the answer . 2. The method requires the students to solve a number of problems experimentally .

How to apply heuristics to solve challenging problems?

1. Act it out.
2. Draw a diagram/model.
3. Use guess-and-check.
4. Make a systematic list.
5. Look for patterns.
6. Work backwards.
7. Use before-after concept.
8. Make suppositions.

This article explains the concept of the Heuristic Method, developed by George Pólya in a practical way. After reading it, you will understand the basics of this powerful Problem Solving tool.

The Heuristic method was, for the first time, coined by Dr. H. E. Armstrong (1888-1928), Professor of Chemistry at City and Guild Institute Kensington. This method of teaching is of a very recent origin.

active learning style

Team taught classes are usually more dynamic and interactive as having different voices, life experiences and personality types can act as additional resources to the classroom. Having another teacher in the classroom means better monitoring during individual or group tasks.

Disadvantages

• The teacher is always ‘on’.
• Teachers may find it difficult to take notes for correction without distracting the student.
• There are a limited range of activities, which can be a bit monotonous for the teacher and student.
• We might feel bad about doing reading and writing.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Team Teaching:

Why co-teaching?

• Reduce student/teacher ratio.
• Increase instructional options for all students.
• Diversity of instructional styles.
• Greater student engaged time.
• Greater student participation levels.

Most Challenging Aspect of Implementing Co-Teaching – In the survey: Planning time and the make-up of co-taught classes (proportion of students with IEPs exceeding 33%) were identified as the two most challenging aspects of implementing co- teaching.

Six Approaches to Co-Teaching

• One Teach, One Observe.
• One Teach, One Assist.
• Parallel Teaching.
• Station Teaching.
• Alternative Teaching: In most class groups, occasions arise in which several students need specialized attention.
• Team Teaching: In team teaching, both teachers are delivering the same instruction at the same time.

Six Co-Teaching Strategies

• One Teach, One Assist. One teacher acts as the primary teacher while the other assists and supports. the learners.
• One Teach, One Observe. •
• Station Teaching. •
• Parallel Teaching. •
• Alternative (Differentiated) Teaching. •
• Team Teaching. •

Co-teaching allows more opportunities for small group and one-to-one learning, and stronger modeling during lessons. The co-planning process encourages two teachers to bounce ideas off each other in order to deliver the strongest, most creative lessons.

The results of the analysis indicated the following benefits to special education students who participated in a co-teaching approach: Large increase in reading and language arts achievement. Moderate decreases in absences and referrals. Moderate increase in math achievement.

How to Make the Most of a Co-Teaching Partnership

1. Respect each other. Not surprisingly, mutual respect is critical to the co-teaching relationship.
2. Clearly define roles and responsibilities.
3. Be flexible.
4. Plan together.
5. Don’t take yourself too seriously.
6. Communicate, communicate, communicate.
7. Seek administrative support.

Co-teaching situations are increasingly common as educators try to meet the wide range of student learning needs. Theoretically, about 20 percent of any classroom in America contains students with a wide variety of special needs. In urban locations, these numbers may be even higher.

What’s the difference between team teaching and co-teaching? Though some people use these terms interchangeably, team teaching usually refers to two general education teachers combining their classes (or sometimes, switching classes) and sharing responsibility for instruction.